Seneca

“ Having borne children, therein lies my revenge—I have now been talking of my complaints, but my mere words of remonstrance are late in the day, and of not much avail, but I have borne the children! Shall I not go into the enemy's camp? Shall I put out the marriage torches with my own hands and leave them all in darkness? Does Phœbus, the progenitor of my race, see all this? And, as he beholds it, will he still pursue his way, seated on his flaming chariot, by the same undeviating track along the spotless skies, regardless of my misery. Why does he not look horrified and hide his face? ”

“ And what was to be the crowning reward of all this?—the golden fleece, and Medea, a greater calamity than the sea itself, certainly a reward, worthy of the first ship that had ever rashly put to sea! Now the sea is brought under control, and obeys all the recognized rules of seamanship! No illustrious Argo built by the hands of a Minerva is now required with kings to man (handle) the oars! Any vessel can now sail about on the sea! Old landmarks have disappeared, and cities inclose themselves with walls, upon fresh, newly-discovered lands! ”

“ Not the rapidly flowing river—not the tempestuous ocean, nor the sea raging from the violence of the East wind, nor the heat of the flames fanned into intensity by the wind playing upon them, could possibly restrain the force of my anger! I will scatter and overthrow every thing in my path! Am I silly enough to believe that Jason goes in any fear of Creon, or the threatened warlike invasion of Acastus, the Thessalian King? No!—True love can never be made to fear any one! ”

“ MEDEA.
They are thine—they are all thine, certainly; he virtually commits a crime, who is an accessory before the fact, and who gladly partakes of the proceeds of a crime! Suppose then, that every one points to thy wife and brands her with infamy, thou art the only champion who is bound to defend her, and the only one bound to call her innocent! Whoever is acting in thy interests, in a criminal capacity, deserves, at least some claim for innocence at thy hands!
JASON.
Life is very distasteful, when one has cause to blush for it. ”

“ MEDEA.
Thou orderest me to flee: restore my Argonautic craft, or give me up my partner (Jason) . Why dost thou order me to go away alone? If thou fearest to suffer from all the calamities of war, send us both out of the kingdom! Why dost thou make this unfair distinction between two criminals? Pelias was not killed for Jason only, but for both of us conjointly! Don't forget the flight, and add to that the robbery of the fleece! The desertion of a father and the dismemberment of a brother, and whatever a husband instructs his newly-married wife to do, is not certainly her affair only! ”

“ Let them be dead to the kisses of a father if they are to be dead to those of another! My anger is getting the upper hand again, and my mind will still nurse its hatred! Erinnys, as of old, urging me on to a fresh crime, repeats her odious assistance! Oh! my anger! wherever thou leadest me, I must follow!
I only wish then, that a whole army of proud Tantalides had emerged from my womb, and that I had been the parent of fourteen sons! I have been restricted in my punishments! (Medea wishes for fourteen children, in order to punish Jason all the more arithmetically.) ”

“ Be silent, I beseech thee, consign thy wrongs to the secret recesses of thy own angry bosom; whoever bears in silence, and with a patient unruffled spirit, the grievous stings of fate, can always place them to better account (to give like for like in revenge) ; anger which is pent-up, and not shown to the world, is always more effective, when brought into play—but grievances which are openly paraded lose many an opportunity for revenge! ”

“ The entire blame is with Creon, who, in his irrestrainable power, has dissolved my marrige with Jason, and it is he, who has separated a mother from her children, and ruthlessly disturbed that conjugal fidelity, by which we were both bound by the strictest pledges! No, he alone shall be sought out for this, he shall suffer that punishment which he so richly deserves—I will reduce his palace to a heap of cinders, and the promontory of Malea, which causes from its numerous bends so much obstruction and delay to navigators, shall witness a black whirlwind of smoke rise out of the flames. ”

“ I, of noble descent, with prospects of the brightest, shone forth, exercising considerable influence with my royal splendor, and then it was that suitors sought my hand in marriage (Jason) who in turn are now being sought for by others as sons-in-law (Creon) . But fortune, ever fleeting and capricious, in a precipitate moment snatched me from my kingdom, and handed me over to exile! Put what trust thou likest in kingdoms, when thou ought to know how the most trifling incident may carry here—remove yonder—at any moment those great advantages which kings enjoy! ”

“ My anger has quitted its post and the "Mother" only becomes the ascendant force, and prevails over the other, the "repudiated wife"! And can I really bring myself to shed the blood of my children, my own very offspring!
Better perhaps! Alas I my mad rage, that ever such a crime should have been thought of, and would that such cruel wickedness had kept itself out of my mind I What crime have those children committed, that they should suffer punishment? Yes! Jason is the crime! Jason is their father, and the greater crime is Medea—they must perish, if they are not mine! ”

“ Nor when the angry Rhone is forcing back the waves, nor when Mount Hæmus denuded of its snowy mantle sends down in torrents towards the rivers the snows which have been melted by the fierce solar heat—following that of mid-spring.—The blind unreasoning passion is excited more and more by the rage engendered through its being thwarted, it does not care to be influenced by reason and will suffer no restraint—it does not even fear death, and is willing to face the point of the sword itself! ”

“ I conjure that silent multitude,-the Manes, and oh! ye deities that preside over the affairs of those departed spirits, Pluto and Proserpine, and darkest chaos, and the sombre palace of the God of the infernal regions, and the dark caverns of loathsome Mors, hemmed in by the banks of the Tartarus, and let the guilty souls released from their punishment, for the nonce, hasten to the forthcoming novel marriage! (Medea calls it novel, because she considers herself the wife.) Let the wheel, which is turning round the body of Ixion, stop its rotations, and suffer him to reach the ground once more! ”

“ Does thy memory take thee back, Jason, to the flames, breathed forth by the Bull? and, when exposed to the savage terrors of that indomitable race, the ferocious troop, which sprang up already armed in the plains of Æeta, and when the darts of that suddenly arriving enemy were threatening thee, and how, at my command, those earth-born soldiers fell one after the other, fighting amongst themselves! Add to this, that much coveted prize, the Golden Fleece of the Phrixean ram! ”

“ Oh holy Astræa! (Goddess of Justice) if thou art still to be found in the heavens, I invoke thee and call to my aid thy divine assistance! The love for my children has compelled me to elect to live, and I suppose that Medea herself, although she is of a naturally ferocious disposition, would rather consult the interests and welfare of her children, than trouble her head any more about this marriage business! ”

“ MEDEA.
There can be only one rest for me, to see everything that is opposed to me fall utterly in one common ruin, together with myself—it is pleasing to know, when one perishes oneself, that one is dragging others into destruction at the same time.
NURSE.
Consider how many contingencies are to be dreaded, if thou wilt persist; no one can attack the will and power of a king with impunity.
JASON—MEDEA.
Medea attacks Jason with violent reproaches for deserting her and excusing himself, and then at his entreaties, pretends to be conciliated. ”

“ Oh! thou too daring one, who first braved the dangers of the treacherous waves, in a vessel so frail, and whilst still retaining in sight the land thou hadst left behind thee, and entrusted thy life even to light winds, and ploughing the sea, steering a doubtful course—how could any man rely on a thin plank, with so insignificant a margin between the journeys of life and death! ”

“ I am suspected,—I am watched,—let my plan of attack be devised in such a mode that no one can possibly suspect anything. Let me proceed, at once, let me dare any deed, and let me now begin!
Thou, my faithful nurse, companion in my miseries, and sharer in my various aspects of fortune, assist me in carrying out my wretched projects! Thou knowest, there is a cloak of mine, the gift to our celestial family, and the proud heirloom of our dynasty, a token given to Æeta by Phœbus, to commemorate his lofty descent ”

“ No violence of the angry flames, no tempestuous winds—no arrow that was ever shot from the bow—are to be dreaded so much as a wife bereaved of her nuptial rights and who (at the same time) is obstinately clinging to her love, and is nursing her pent-up wrath, when it is unacknowledged. Not less, indeed, than when the south wind, charged with its cumulous nebulosities, bursts upon us with its winter rains,—nor when the swollen Danube rushes on in torrents, and breaks down the bridges built across it, and overflows its very banks! ”

“ And grant to me that the calamities shall be worse, which I may invoke to befall my husband! Let him live, let him wander amongst unknown and hostile countries, as a suspected vagrant, as an exile, always in dread of some terrible disaster, hated by everybody, with no fixed home of his own, deserted by his Lares—let him sigh in vain to have me back again! Let him have to seek the threshold of a stranger—he is already a marked man, too well known as a guest! ”

“ What raw novice would dare to attempt anything on a really grand scale! What, for example, did my girlish anger (achievements) amount to? Now I am Medea (if you please) and my abilities have improved during my long career of crime! Things gave me satisfaction at the time. I was pleased when ! took away my brothers life; I was pleased also, when I handed the weapons of destruction to the daughters of Pelias, to deal the finishing blow to that poor old man! Let my present anger, however, seek out for adequate materials upon which to finish my crowning revenge! ”

“ Thou art hatching something, some wicked crime has entered thy head, thy hands have again been employed upon some mischief! Whom or what does that woman spare? Whom will she ever allow to remain in security? Indeed, I have been making up my mind to destroy her forthwith, and to condemn her to suffer the worst punishment to which I could sentence her,—the sword! But my son-in-law, Jason, has won me over by his entreaties not to do so, and thus her life has been spared to her, but she must be caused to free my kingdom of any further fears (arising out of her evil machinations) . ”

“ I have often and often been made to be a criminal, but never for myself alone!
CREON.
Now it is right thou shouldst go: why sow delays by further talk?
MEDEA.
One last thing as a suppliant I crave, before I go: do not let the crimes of a mother be visited upon her innocent children! ”

“ But there is still one thing left for me to carry out, that I myself shall put in an appearance at the marriage with my own hymeneal pine torch and, after the preliminary prayers, can myself slay the sacrificial victims before the sacred altars! Oh! my inward soul! if thou livest, that is if thou art alive to thy sought-for revenge, seek the road to such revenge, by way of their entrails, and if there is any of my ancient self left within me, let me cast aside all womanish fears, and assume the disposition of a fierce and cruel Caucasian ”

“ It is for thee, that my hand is waving this mournful branch, which was washed up by the Stygian streams—it is for thee that with my breast laid bare as a Mænad, I will pierce my arms with the sacred knife, that my own blood may flow at thy altars! Let me accustom myself to the drawing of the sword, and let me be able to spare the loss of blood, which now is all the more precious to me. (She means she will require all her physical vigor to carry out the slaughter of her children.) ”

“ In one place a slowly-moving serpent drags its huge body along, and protrudes its three-forked tongue, as if seeking upon what it should dart forth its death-dealing stings—it seemed stupefied by the incantations it had just listened to, and it folds its swollen body in a spiral fashion, its knots presenting the appearance of a huge knob. And she then turns her thoughts to this orb, and remarks tha the mischief to be expected out of this does not amount to much, and it is a sorry engine for my purpose, which this lower earth can bring forth at its best. ”

“ I will give it to him, and therefore hurl all thy torches at my eyes, if thou wilt, tear me in pieces,—consume me entirely with thy fire! Look! My breast is open to the Furies, for then: attack! Oh I my brother, let those representatives of the avenging Goddesses depart from my sight, in security to the Manes below! Leave me to myself, oh, my brother, and I, who unsheathed this sword, let it be employed by the hand which now holds it! I will appease the Manes, with this victim! (Here Medea strikes down the first child.) ”